Blossom: Day Six, Frocks and sausages

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Saturday 6 Frocktober

Outfit

• Reproduction day dress, black shoes (shop)
• High-waisted trousers, jumper, tweed jacket, headscarf (evening)

 Menu

• Breakfast - the LAST of the leftovers, hooray!
• Lunch - cheese and lettuce sandwich, cup of tea
• Dinner - sausages and salad, cake
• After dinner - Horlicks

Mood

• Dampened

A quick (and late) one today, as I spent the day having a wonderful time at our beloved Darling Central, along with lovely flamingos Miss Jasmine and the gorgeous Miss Rubi - who started her very first day with us yesterday. Welcome Rubi!

The three of us had such a lovely time playing dress-ups with lots of delightful customers. We were so busy, I'm afraid, that I didn't have time to snap any photos, but here is an artist's impression:

The Misses Rubi and Jasmine working at Darling Central (artist's impression).

 I fell back on my tried-and-tested old favourite Darling Sisters reproduction forties day dress, which after all comes from an old pattern for a dress made for the precise purpose of looking neat and professional while working. Also very comfortable. Alas, if only the same could have been said for my stockings, which had awkward rubbing bits, wandering seams and a tendency to slip.

Once the fun of the day in the shop was over, sadly the gloss went out of the day somewhat. It was pelting down rain, my beautiful heeled shoes were beginning to remind me that I don't often wear heels, my stockings were squabbling, with one attempting to go west and the other endeavouring to head east, I had laddered the left one, and I had to go shopping for many heavy groceries (of course I had a recalcitrant shopping trolley as well.)

The Captain, in the meantime, had spent the day labouring hard in the backyard of his beloved sister: a family working bee. It was - as the Captain explained to me afterwards - very hard work, involving large amounts of heavy earth moving, vicious spiders, enormous rocks, concrete, explosions, high-speed car chases, and needing to remove one's tie in public occasionally.

The Captain, hard at work in the garden.

After our labours, both of us were exhausted ... and soaking wet from the rain that had settled in, along with some lightning and thunder just to make life interesting.

I had to change clothes when I dropped home with the groceries, as I was dripping wet. I couldn't bear to look at another pair of stockings, so I crawled into my comfy high-waisted Hepburn trousers, added a comforting wooly jumper and a cosy tweed jacket, and decided that the Red Badge of Courage was fine for people who didn't have to go back outdoors into the rain. The poor Captain had to wash and change as well, into a clean suit and tie that didn't have concrete dust and cordite stains all over the waistcoat.


Now, the original plans for the evening were that we would join the Captain's family for a post-gardening barbeque dinner. What a lovely idea that was, when the plans were made! A lovely Spring evening, sunset, birds singing, a fragrant barbecue, crisp salads and wonderful company.

Well, we could manage the salads and the company, at least.

I threw together some salads to bring along (need I even say it? plenty of carrots), and packed some sausages. Then I firmly tied a headscarf on, in the vain hope of protecting the last of my Miss Viki waves from dropping out with the rain. (It worked. All praise Miss Viki.)

Sigh. Lipstick is for people who don't have to swim to the car.

 
In spite of the rain we got together as planned. While the Captain's delightful, very young nephew earnestly explained to us all how he had been extremely helpful assisting Papa with the operation of the mechanical digger (we assume his bear was also helping, although Bear was fairly quiet on the topic), we cooked our sausages and other barbecue treats indoors, and ate sitting around the table while the storm raged outside.

After a long day for everybody (what with garden explosions, unsettled babies, crowded grocery shops, horrible stockings and the like) we all started out rather exhausted and wan. However as hot sausages, cold salads and sponge cake started to work their magic, we all perked up and managed a very nice evening indeed.

There are many things in life to feel grateful for. One, of course, is that we have each other. Another is that there are so many people out there who are willing to dedicate time, effort and generous donations towards making the world a nicer, safer place.

A third is the modern sausage.

It isn't really possible to purchase sausages in Australia that resemble the efforts produced in the forties. In the UK, meat was heavily rationed and sausages were a popular way of making a bit of meat go further. A plate of sausages is a very comforting thing, and when everything in the world seemed grim, a supper with a sausage must have brightened the day up, at least a little, so they were always welcome on the dinner table.

Nevertheless, they were notoriously bad, with a tiny quantity of low-quality ground meat mixed with large amounts of anything else that could be found to pad them out. Breadcrumbs, dodgy gristle, and according to legend - sawdust.

The term 'bangers' was coined for these almost-sausages because of the way they were inclined to explode loudly upon impact with the frying pan - too much water, not enough fat.

The sausages we ate last night were, in contrast, packed to the brim with highest quality Australian beef, lamb or pork, delicately spiced and deliciously savoury. They cooked to fragrant perfection and each bite was a piquant pleasure. It would have been nice to tell you that I eschewed such pleasures and insisted on carefully making by hand a string of Sawdust Specials, but the sad fact is that I enjoyed every bite in a way I would never have prior to my Frocktobers in the forties.

After a rainy, action-packed day, and surrounded by hilarious, laughing, gently bickering, loving family members, even an indoor barbecue during a thunderstorm is a thing of beauty.

Frock you later.
Blossom